The present invention relates to a method for cutting a mat of plies of fabric in order to facilitate the removal of stacks of cut pattern pieces and to a machine for automatically removing the stacks from a cutting table.
In the particular field of the cutting of pattern pieces of cloth for making items of clothing of any kind, cutting tables are currently used constituted by a platform on which a stack of a plurality of superimposed individual cuts of cloth, known as mat, is arranged; a film made of a material such as impermeable plastics is placed on the mat and intense suction is applied from below, compressing and packing the mat on the table: then a blade descends which is actuated so as to oscillate vertically in order to cut the mat of fabrics and so as to move on the plane along x-y coordinated axes in order to follow the contour of the individual pattern pieces to be cut.
The cutting operations are performed automatically and are controlled by an electronic computer, which is appropriately programmed in each instance with the data related to the contours to be cut and to their distribution in the mat.
Once the pattern pieces have been cut, it is necessary to remove the individual stacks of cut pieces from the mat; this operation is currently performed manually, with a considerable expenditure of time and labor: it has been observed, for example, that three or four people are needed in order to remove the cut stacks in the time required by an operator to perform the cutting operation; moreover, whereas cutting requires simply monitoring by personnel and interventions only in case of malfunctions and for the operations for loading the mat, removal of the stacks requires direct manual interventions in positions which are also awkward to reach.
Removal of the stacks of cut pieces is also hindered by the fact that the mat can be even considerably thick and that it is necessary to act from above: removal difficulties increase in the presence of small pieces having a reduced area.